Take A Look At Kenzo’s Exclusive All-Asian Model Cast For Their Spring 2018 Collection

Inspired by Japan’s first supermodel, Sayoko Yamaguchi – who was one of Kenzo Takada’s original inspirations – as well as Takada’s own Japanese heritage, the Kenzo Spring 2018 Menswear and Womenswear collection was a myriad of bold hues and clashing prints, introduced in silhouettes of textures and frills.

Although those weren’t the only highlights of the show, Kenzo cast more than 80 models of Asian descent – and only Asian descent – to walk their latest runway. Featuring both men and women, this was a first for them. For Kenzo though, this was more than just a statement. The all-Asian cast was also a nod to the inspiration and heritage behind the collection.

This bold idea came about from Humberto Leon and Carol Lim, Kenzo’s creative directors, who have famously gone political in past shows by addressing climate and immigration issues. This time however, they wanted to take a step back for a lighter approach!

“We’ve gone political; we’ve addressed climate; we’ve gone on very topical things, and we wanted to almost step back and really have fun with this collection,” Leon explained to Vogue. “I think we use our platform so instinctively for different reasons, and we just wanted to use it for joy.”

The collection celebrated the combination of two muses, Sayoko and Kenzo, each representing the current view and the past of the fashion brand.

“For both collections, we aim to capture the duality of the two figures, we look to the era when they both ruled two distant continents; to Ryuichi’s personal flair when questioning the norm, and to Sayoko’s ability to mix patterns, prints, silhouettes, and colours.” said both Humberto and Carol regarding their inspirations.